Buckets for front-end loaders are commonplace and are widely used in various areas of construction, grading and excavation. Typically, buckets of the prior art include what might be referred to as a rectangular opening. Generally, conventional bucket designs feature a pair of vertical side walls and a surrounding interconnecting structure that extends from the lower front cutting edge of the bucket back around to a top area. Such conventional buckets are efficient and effective for certain material handling operations. However, conventional bucket designs do not lend themselves particularly to specialty operations such as landscaping. Further, they are not designed for great maneuverability and are generally incapable of digging relatively small and precise openings in the ground.
While it is true that conventional buckets are used by landscapers, it is generally recognized and appreciated by landscapers and those people working in the landscaping industry that conventional bucket designs are not particularly effective and efficient in everyday landscaping operations. For example, it is quite difficult and time consuming to dig a correct size hole for a pre-dug tree with a conventional front-end loader bucket. In addition, there are other landscaping related jobs that cannot be efficiently carried out with a conventional bucket. For example, trenches are typically dug in the ground for the purpose of installing irrigation lines and pipes. Conventional front-end loader buckets are not designed to handle such operations efficiently.
There have been attempts at providing bucket designs that are particularly suitable for landscaping operations. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,418. This patent discloses an elongated concave scoop that is designed to be attached to a front-end loader. This concave scoop design, like a conventional bucket designs, has limited applications. It is not particularly suited for a wide range of landscaping uses and is not suited for light to medium duty grading and excavation. In addition, the fact that the central component of this device entails a concave scoop panel makes the device relatively expensive and difficult to build.
There has been and continues to be a need for a relatively simple and inexpensive bucket design that lends itself to a wide range of landscaping operations and which can also be used in light to medium duty grading and excavation operations.